SC seeks ideas to avoid uphaar-like tragedies

The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought suggestions from Delhi Police, Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), Delhi Government and Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT) on how to avoid tragedies such as the Uphaar incident in which 59 persons died after a fire broke out at the cinema hall.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought suggestions from Delhi Police, Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), Delhi Government and Association of Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT) on how to avoid tragedies such as the Uphaar incident in which 59 persons died after a fire broke out at the cinema hall.

A bench headed by Justice RV Raveendran said it would enlarge the scope of the appeal filed by MCD, the Ansals and Delhi Police to set aside the Delhi High Court order directing them to pay compensation to the AVUT members.

The bench said it would lay down guidelines to ensure that such tragedies do not get repeated in the future. The suggestions have to be filed before December 16, the next date of hearing in SC. The court would pass its final judgment on the appeals after considering the suggestions filed by various parties litigating in the case.

Earlier, MCD counsel Sanjeev Sen told the court that it had never issued a no-objection certificate (NOC) to the Uphaar cinema hall for facilitating its operation. Sen’s submission was in reply to a court query if the corporation had ever issued NOC in favour of the hall.

The advocate said the MCD got empowered to issue NOCs to cinema halls only in 1994. He said the executive engineer of MCD’s building department was made the in-charge of issuing the certificates. However, the corporation never issued any license to Uphaar in wake of several violations.

M CD’s report of 1996 too had pointed out number of violations that continued in the cinema hall and had informed the Delhi Police’s licensing department of its decision to not to grant the NOC.

Fifty-nine people died, mostly due to suffocation, after a fire broke out at Uphaar cinema on June 13, 1997.